[sandman01086]

My brothers laptop is not a bad spec to run windows xp on (Centrino M 1.86Ghz + 512MB RAM) however it is incredibly slow, and when trying to load any sort of application or program it just freezes up, I can't even load Mcafee to run a virus scan. I have disabled all grapics options and have used msconfig to disable any unwated bootup items. I cannot load the start menu to run a disk defrag or disk cleanup.

Any suggestions? Or is it the dreaded format?

Cheers, Jim

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Hi Jim,

See if ATF-Cleaner will help.
get it here-

http://www.geekstogo...amp;showfile=21

And reformatting isn't such a bad option, if you have everything you need, like license codes and documents backed up somewhere else, and it helps to save your downloads of other programs separate from your computer, saves a lot of downloading.

But anyways, Geekstogo is for fixing it rather then reformating.
reformating as a very last option.

So stick around you will get some more input from the geeks here.
I'm just a computer junkie....

Edited by cmpm, 20 July 2008 - 07:38 AM.

[cmpm]

Hi Jim,

See if ATF-Cleaner will help.
get it here-

http://www.geekstogo...amp;showfile=21

And reformatting isn't such a bad option, if you have everything you need, like license codes and documents backed up somewhere else, and it helps to save your downloads of other programs separate from your computer, saves a lot of downloading.

But anyways, Geekstogo is for fixing it rather then reformating.
reformating as a very last option.

So stick around you will get some more input from the geeks here.
I'm just a computer junkie....

Edited by cmpm, 20 July 2008 - 07:38 AM.

[cmpm]

btw-it's always a good idea to back up what you want in case of complete failure of computer

I use Syncplicity which backs up to their server or another of your computers.
Fre account is 2GB, and of course you can buy nore if you want.

XDrive is another on I use by aol.
5GB free.

Also there is GoodSync's free version that you can use to sync between computers.
No size limit, but has to be done manualy for the free version.

http://www.goodsync.com/download.html

I keep every thing I want in "My Documents".
Makes it easy to do a quick backup.

With GoodSync, you have to set the folders you are syncing to 'share' to pick them up on a home network.

Edited by cmpm, 20 July 2008 - 07:51 AM.

[sandman01086]

thanks for that mate, will give it a go

[sandman01086]

tried running atf cleaner, i can get it installed and begin to run it, but before it can complete it changes to (not responding) does this with all programs i load

[The Skeptic]

1: Go to Device Manager, expand IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers. Click on "Primary IDE Channel" and click "Advanced Setting". "Transfer Mode" should show "DMA if Available" for device 0 and device 1. If it shows "PIO", Right click again the "Primary IDE channel" and choose to uninstall it. Reboot and let Windows reload the driver. Repeat the procedure with Secondary IDE channel.

2: Use this link to run EXE Files Association Fix.